Dang ol'

The boat is awesome, it looks really sweet in my backyard and the bank lets me slowly pay it off over the course of years.  It didn't have a blind on it and I hadn't done a proper walk-in day so Bob and I headed out to The Point.  It's really nice out there and I hadn't been since last season.

I brought the breakfast burritos and Bob brought the sammys (BBQ sauce is awesome).  We packed light and set out a v shaped spread, plenty of time before shooting.  Bob is on an " I won't shoot anything but widgeon" thing right now so he let the big fat mallard henny go.  Nothing else really wanted in and we were left listening to the laughs of some mallards a little ways down the shore from us.

I get cold pretty easy and the light load had never really warmed me up, so I went off to scare up greenie and and brought Peat along for some exercise. After scaring up a good sized flock and sending a few near but not near enough to the blind I headed back.  That's when I noticed a pack of mallards between me and the blind, right along the shore.  I walked and crawled  and got in close enough to shoot, Bob called and gave me the tip in case I was wandering into an ambush.

When I jumped  they jumped, one big fat greenie went down and Peat brought him in. It dawned on me while I was walking back to The Point that I could have taken a second shot at another bird, I've never tried a double and a jump shot is the perfect scenario to try.  We sat for awhile longer and we decided after I got back from my next walk we would pack up, I still had to work and Bob has a couch and TV calling his name.  I asked if he wanted to come and he opted out.

Heading back along the channel and then through a bunch of brush until I came into view of some small diver ducks along the shore.  I debated it for a little while and decided to watch them before I scared them toward the blind.  While they were playing something moved between me and the waterline, there was another greenie sitting in a shoebox sized puddle in the mud.  I watched it for a minute and then jumped.

He popped out of that hole with a surprise, he'd been getting nasty with a hen.  The first shot dropped the drake cold, I had just been thinking about it so I leveled on the hen and fired a single shot.  Peat went after the hen and I grabbed the drake, my first true, intentional double!  I was pumped, both had been clean kills.  This was the highlight of my hunting career, I thought.  Something crazy happened when Peat came back in to exchange his duck for a treat.  I rolled her over and there was something I never expected to see in person, a shiny little bracelet covered in numbers.

I picked up my birds and headed back to the blind, floating along.  Bob couldn't believe I got two birds and when I showed him the band he seemed as excited as I was.  I called in and reported the band, she was a local bird, banded around the Killarney area, about 2 years old.  I know people get these all the time and some never see one ever, but I'd like to think that now that the ice has been broken the h7ht will be flooded with bands in the future.  Perhaps one day Bob will only slay banded widgeon.